You Can't Google This One--WKY's Power

[Clara Listensprechen]

As I visited museums in the Oklahoma City area, I visited a fairly new musem, the Museum of History in downtown OKC in which there was a section on historical Oklahoma radio stations.  In one display there was posted a schematic for pioneer station 5XT which was liicensed in 1921 as WKY, and this schematic used a power supply consisting of 3 pint jars containing a solution of borax and water and into each was placed a pair of electrodes (one was lead; I don't recall the other and I horrified myself by not making note of the other).

Each pint jar would deliver 25 volts, according to Raymond Lee Fish's notes on the schematic, and he was contemplating a 40-jar 1 Kv  radio station.

I guess I'm going to have to revisit that museum to get the details on what the other electrode material was...I'm thinking it was graphite...

[Clara Listensprechen]

Here's one that CAN be googled up:  the dry pile.

http://www.amasci.com/emotor/duluc.html

[blindsangamon]

Clara - what you saw was an electrolytic rectifier.  One plate was lead, the other aluminum, in a borax solution.  These were pretty common in ham radio stations through the Depression, until rectifier tubes became cheap. 
73 -

[maw2432]

Here's one that CAN be googled up:  the dry pile.

http://www.amasci.com/emotor/duluc.html

Thanks Clara.    Nice history on the dry pile.

Bill

[Clara Listensprechen]

You're welcome!